A damning Ombudsman report confirmed all the allegations about former prison director Colonel Alex Dalli’s dark abuse.
It reveals Dalli’s sadistic, brutal treatment of vulnerable inmates, in clear violation of the law and prison regulations. It describes in eye-watering detail the inhuman, degrading treatment inmates suffered at Dalli’s hands. It reveals Dalli’s vindictive viciousness with inmates who tried seeking outside help.
It recounts how 15 immigrants were made to face the wall, stripped naked, hosed down with water, subjected to verbal abuse and intimidated with dogs. It recounts how Dalli lorded over the prison like a king, roaming around flashing his firearm under his jacket. His notorious sign urging staff to teach fear to inmates was real.
The Ombudsman’s report declares that “as to the number of deaths and/or suicides in prison… the Commission is morally convinced that particularly vulnerable inmates must have been affected by the treatment accorded to them upon admission to the CCF… leading to unfortunate situations”. Dalli is partly to blame for those deaths. But it’s Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri who bears the greatest guilt.
“It is not the function of the Ombudsman’s Office to determine who is to shoulder the political responsibility for the systemic maladministration at the CCF. That determination is reserved for others.” The Ombudsman expects political responsibility to be shouldered. The only question is: Who should shoulder it? Camilleri, Robert Abela, or both?
Camilleri knew what was happening. He was warned repeatedly by the media, Peppi Azzopardi, Andrew Azzopardi, NGOs. As Corradino deaths mounted, the clamour for Dalli’s sacking grew deafening. But Camilleri kept shielding Dalli. Only after the 14th death, when Corradino became Europe’s most lethal prison, did the minister act. Dalli was allowed to suspend himself, only to be elevated to Libya special envoy.
The Ombudsman revealed a catalogue of helpless inmates subjected to torture. One inmate was kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for 33 days in a bare cell, with a piece of brown foam for a mattress, no pillow, no chair, a hole in the ground for a toilet, no water, no underwear and no socks – in December. He was only given a piece of canvas for a blanket.
Another inmate was subjected to “special treatment” in the punishment division simply because Dalli was revulsed by his crime. The inmate spent five days in solitary confinement, with a metal structure and some foam for a bed, a concrete sink with cold water and a non-flushing stainless steel bowl for a toilet. He had no toilet paper and no fan in the summer heat. He was only transferred to a normal cell when his psychiatrist intervened. When the inmate asked to speak to Dalli, to request permission to continue with tertiary education, Dalli refused to speak to him.
When an article appeared in a local newspaper in which a university professor condemned Dalli’s draconian decisions, the inmate was dragged to Dalli’s office, subjected to verbal abuse and then sent to solitary confinement for 15 days. He was neither allowed to appeal, nor speak to his lawyer.
Another inmate’s marriage was blocked by Dalli just 10 days before the date. When the inmate’s partner took legal action, Dalli exacted revenge. He banned his partner from visiting him for six months and withheld her letters. The inmate was transferred to punishment division 6. Dalli told the inmate that, as long as he was director, he wouldn’t let him get married or leave division 6.
The prisoner was stripped naked and thrown into a cell with no toilet, no sink, no bed and no sheets. His partner wasn’t allowed to wash his clothing or send him food. When his partner appeared on Xarabank she was again prohibited from visiting him. The court ruled Dalli’s actions were not only unjustified and driven by revenge but constituted inhuman and degrading treatment.
Alex Dalli should be sacked, investigated and prosecuted- Kevin Cassar
A young woman transferred to jail from Mater Dei Hospital where she evaded her guard to look for cigarettes was sent directly to solitary confinement in retribution for her “escape” despite having already attempted suicide just 18 hours earlier. She re-attempted suicide while in solitary confinement and died a few days later.
Dalli exerted pressure on a social worker to reveal confidential details about inmates to him. She refused. He swore at her. He summoned her to his office, told her to pack her stuff and go back to the agency from where she’d come.
Dalli should be sacked, investigated and prosecuted.
Camilleri must resign. Without Camilleri, Dalli would have had no power. Labour passed the Devolution of Certain Ministerial Powers Act in 2020, transferring extremely important powers to the prisons’ director from the minister, when it was obvious to one and all that ‘something was rotten in the state of Denmark’.
Camilleri was alerted repeatedly to Dalli’s abuse. Yet, he kept defending Dalli. Camilleri denied the existence of a “punishment chair”, or that Dalli had placed a pillowcase over the head of an agitated youth strapped to that chair. “There is no punishment chair,” Camilleri claimed, “only a method of restraint.”
As deaths mounted at Corradino, still Camilleri supported Dalli’s brutal regime, stating “a hardline stance will serve to improve inmates’ rehabilitation. Finally, we have a prison administration which has full control”. “Without order,” he added, “prisoners cannot be rehabilitated back into society.”
Camilleri claimed, “three out of four magisterial inquiries into prison deaths found no wrongdoing by the administration”. Yet, Labour’s Attorney General kept those inquiries secret. After the 11th death, Times of Malta requested information from the AG, who replied: “Magisterial inquiries are confidential in nature and no information may be divulged.”
Unbelievably, Camilleri is still defending Dalli and his €100,000 government job: “The country benefits from Dalli’s work.”
Labour is a medieval organisation that defends primitive, barbaric abuse of vulnerable inmates. It is responsible for creating and enabling a brutal, chaotic regime that led to multiple deaths at Corradino. Now Labour is deviously claiming it is the “extremist faction of the PN” that is calling for Camilleri’s resignation. ADPD and Momentum certainly aren’t the PN’s extreme faction. Neither is the Ombudsman.
Camilleri has no excuse. He is responsible for the young lives unnecessarily cut short at Labour’s torture centre.
He must go. He owes it to the parents of those young people mercilessly and needlessly sacrificed by his dysfunctional, abusive “correctional facility”.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.